1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to graphics, video images and/or other content, and more specifically to mixing graphics with video images or other content.
2. Background Information
On screen displays (OSDs) have become increasingly prevalent for use with video display devices, such as televisions and monitors. OSDs first began to appear in televisions in the mid 1980s, for example to display channel numbers and volume settings on the television screen, rather than on a separate indicator. By the late 1990s, OSDs began to appear in videocassette recorders (VCRs), for example to indicate when play, rewind, fast-forward, or other functions were activated. Virtually all digital video disc (DVD) players now utilize OSDs to display menu systems for control, configuration, and a variety of other functions. While a typical OSD may advantageously obviate the need for some external indicators, it is generally quite limited in its functionality. Often OSDs allow for only a very specific set of text and symbols to be displayed, for example, only a predefined set of text fonts and sizes, and only certain symbols loaded in a library. The text and symbols often must be formatted in a very particular manner, and commonly are of very limited detail. Further, the text and symbols generally must either replace the entire video image, i.e., forming a full-screen OSD that obscures the video image completely, or be displayed in limited, predefined regions over the video image, for example be displayed in a certain corner, while video images occupy the remainder of the display.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system and method for mixing graphics with video images or other content, which does not suffer from the limitations of prior approaches, and allows for a wider variety of different types of high-quality graphics to be mixed with video images or other content, in any desired display region.